I start off every seminar with a short series of survival questions. Who, what, where, when how and why? And top of the list is "who do you really think you will be fighting?" The answer? Criminals and enemy soldiers. We fight criminals and enemy soldiers. Sometimes we escape. Sometimes we run them off. Sometimes we take them prisoner. Sometimes we kill them.

On the battlefield it use to be easy to recognize who the enemy is. He was wearing a different uniform than yours. But armies have also fought disorganized guerrilla fighters since the days of Alexander the Great - men and women dressed in our own common clothes, or their indigenous clothing. For the military, the enemy soldier is a mix of all these prototypes, and soldiers are drawn from all personality types, psychologies and backgrounds of their society.

That is a military problem. Here as in my courses, I will introduce and dissect the common and uncommon, organized or disorganized criminal and these automatically now include "military" enemies too. We fight criminals?

What if it is a fight with our drunk uncle? Technically, if your favorite brother-in-law raises a fist to you, he officially becomes a criminal and relatives and friends fall into this broad category. ALL fights involve use of force, legal issues and are highly situational.

In many ways this big picture of "who" education is the very underpinnings of all following "what, where, how and why" segments. The "who" is about recognition.

"The who you know, and the who you don't know, and who you don't know, you don't know."

Keep in mind there is simply no way in this essay to cover the various personality types like pan-violent, frustration-aggressive, by-polar, under-controlled persons and over-controlled persons and on and on.

Such is the intense study found in psychology and sociology doctoral programs spanning decades. This essay is about the initial recognition of danger and initial response, survival skills, just a working knowledge of who you might encounter is an achievable lesson.

Fortunately, citizens and police deal mostly with the common, disorganized or at most, somewhat disorganized, criminal and not the soldier. The uncommon, organized criminal uses imagination and planning to execute their crimes and escapes and his plans include the most heinous serial crimes. Start your study by problem-solving the common, high percentage criminals and then then spend time planning on the uncommon ones. Worst case scenarios.

With criminals it is often harder to recognize them at first for many reasons. Often you start out trusting them in the very short term, as when a smiling stranger approaches you; or in the long term, as with friendship. co-workers and blood and non-blood relatives.

“Keep your friends close, your enemies closer” Who said that first? Shakespeare? Machiavelli? Rasputin? Don Corleone? Rooknaw the Caveman? You may not want to, but you do keep your criminals close whether you like it or not. People are more often assaulted, raped and killed by people they know.

This is confusing when you analyze crime statistics. For example, the New York City Police Department proudly proclaimed in 2007 that they had the lowest crime rate of stranger-on-stranger murders. But, this proclamation is a dubious one when you pull back the wizard’s curtain on crime statistics. Most violent crime is not stranger-on-stranger anyway. Your enemy is close and hardly a stranger to you!

Too close! If you are a woman in most so-called, civilized societies, the Centers for Violence against women say that 1 in 20 women will have stalker problems. 79% of women know their stalkers; 50% were in an intimate relationship with their stalker and 80% of these relationships were abusive.

Your spouse is most likely the one to hurt or kill you. A child is mostly likely molested by someone the child knows. A man will most likely fight with his drunk brother-in-law, friend or acquaintance at a bar or barmitzfa. Burglars often know their victim. Dope dealers know their dope dealers. Gangs kill the names, faces, bandannas and tattoos of other gangs.

Family crime? Murder, aggravated assault assault, rape and other sexual offenses. In the United States, about 300 children a year are charged with killing one or both parents, Paul Mones said in his research book, When a Child Kills.

Cases where a child kills the entire family, known as "familicide," are less frequent than ones perpetrated by the father. Louis B. Schlesinger, a professor of a forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said familicide is more commonly committed by a depressed or jealous father.

Slayings of relatives by teenagers "are usually spontaneous sorts of things," Schlesinger said. "While with the brooding, depressive male adult family murderer, it's not spontaneous, it's much more thought through, with obsessive rumination prior to it. With a teenager, it's almost always impulsive, spontaneous, and there happened to be a loaded gun around."

Mones said such family slayings of all types are typically motivated by one of two factors: "extreme family dysfunction in terms of physical and emotional abuse, or severe mental health issues that pervade the family, whether it's the perpetrator or the parents or themselves.

Still, the majority of family assaults are considered to be of minor in nature. In their book, Crisis Intervention, the authors, McKean and Hendricks write that, “To understand intimate partner violence, it is important to make a distinction between common couple [minor] violence and chronic [serious] battering.”

The National Violence Against Women Survey (Tjaden & Thoennes) documents that “most physical assaults committed against women and men in relationships are relatively minor and consist of pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping and hitting.” - the difference between serious (battering) and minor (family conflict)

As far as identifying the common criminal it can be very tough, indeed. Imagine a company with little over 500 employees that has the following statistics:

* 29 have been accused of spousal abuse * 7 have been arrested for fraud * 19 have been accused of writing bad checks * 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses * 3 have done time for assault * 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit * 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges * 8 have been arrested for shoplifting * 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits * 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

That company would be a recent year and the 535 members of the United States Congress. Watch the next State of the Union presidential address next January where many of them are present and try to pick out who’se who.

Who are the most violent criminals? I am a graduate of a criminal profiling police school offered by the State of Texas, taught by both state and federal experts. In this class they identified the most violent criminal to beware of - a white male, between the ages of 17 to 25 or 28. Imagine that!

There are a few other markers but the markers about things such as their problemed childhood and are not things you can quickly know or identify in a short term encounter. You may however learn of these markers though longer-term encounters. The common histories include:

- Abuse, torture and sex with small animals - A physical abnormality you may or may not can easily see - Trouble with their parents

This generic profile is still true today, but by no means should this be the only profile of a potential violent criminal you should watch for. Criminals and terrorists come in all shapes, sexes, sizes, colors and religions and their identification is much more situational and about what they are doing and wearing and where they are.

A totality of circumstances is the legal term and exactly who they are, is just a part of the identification process. In this age of islamic, fanatic and extremism, only a fool would not raise an eyebrow at the 9-11 look-alike's when doing things suspiciously in certain situations.

I would expect no less of similar eyebrow raises against white or black people in certain situations. You must be properly educated beforehand and articulate why your brows raised. Stand by for more on that.

It seems every month some employee or ex-employee shoots up a job-site somewhere in the world. A profile of this character has also been developed. Unlike the young male profile previously mentioned, these jobsite shooters are usually male and over 35, and often have many years of employment at the very place they shoot up.

Usually their work history is spotted with odd troubles. Forensic psychologists suggest that, “employers and co-workers should watch for changes in these problem-people’s behavior, attendance, productivity, personal hygiene, and social isolation.

Killing sprees usually are the culmination of many years of unresolved personal problems and mismanaged stresses. Problems with alcohol and drugs, financial worries, and marriage and family pressures often aggravated their problems while coping with this fast-paced society.” Some of these business shootings involve perceived or real sexual relationships, or break-ups and divorces.

The next probability factor in workplace violence is an ex-boyfriend or husband shows up and shoot's the relationship partner's, business place up. Some of these business shootings also involve perceived or real sexual relationships, or break-ups and divorces. Keep an ear open to employees and co-workers in break-ups and really heated divorces. The danger zone includes the business parking lot.

I can personally attest to all the above after my investigations of workplace violence related to worker's compensation.

A nationwide USA Today Poll conducted in July, 2006 stated that 1 in 5 people, or some 40 million adults have been addicted to drugs or alcohol at some point in their lives. Many other users who are not addicted are responsible for all kinds of negative incidents.

This effects everyone and the recklessness, loss of control and desperation increases crime and accidents in all categories.

This means that 1 in 5 people can cause of lot trouble, but so can the occasional users. When considering who to avoid? This would be a major category.

2) Who am I? Really! Take a realistic inventory: - * am I trained to recognize violent encounters before and while they happen? - * am I trained in vocal, de-escalation skills? - * am I in physical shape to fight for several non-stop minutes or more? - * am I in physical shape to run far enough away? - * am I trained to fight properly? - * do I have or need weapons? Can I fight against weapons?

These statistics and studies vary year to year. Always check for the latest if are preparing for a report or a presentation.

2) Who am I? Really! Take a realistic inventory: - * am I trained to recognize violent encounters before and while they happen? - * am I trained in vocal, de-escalation skills? - * am I in physical shape to fight for several non-stop minutes or more? - * am I in physical shape to run far enough away? - * am I trained to fight properly? - * do I have or need weapons? Can I fight against weapons?

These statistics and studies vary year to year. Always check for the latest if are preparing for a report or a presentation.

Great list Van , and every item could be broken into other lists , and on and on.....

People that assess and ask the questions of themselves open and honestly are the ones I love to train with.

to many times in life and martial arts things become set , they become the thing itself when in reality they started out as a means or a question , long after the means and question is gone folks are stuck , the question has failed to evolve , it now becomes about the thing itself.

breathing life into your art requires giving life from your questions and going beyond your comfort and understanding.

I remember a conversation with a co worker, he had just been in court with a case involving a guy who had murdered a priest with a knife. He said to me that he had never seen such a puny,weak looking individual. people develop conceptions about what other people look like, based on silly things like TV and the cinema. I knew a couple who were top criminal lawyers, he was fat and sweated profusely and she smelt ...not your tv image, sylvester Stallone ( believe it or not was not a war hero.or a boxer).You can miss the real threat by them not coming up to your expectations...but sometimes they can, the ex boxer turned into a drug dealer.......but you should never get into your head the idea of a "perp" or a "threat" or any other such thing.you just need to be aware

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